Samsara
by SundayRowe
Summary: Four years to the day they found themselves at the memorial stone. Sakura and Hinata struggle to come to peace with the violent death of their husbands as Boruto and Sarada play. Diverges from canon after chapter 699. Hinata & Sakura friendship fic. Sasuke X Naruto. One-shot.


**Samara**

Sarada's pale little hand was clenched in her own. They traipsed over course grass toward the black monolith. The girl was humming to herself, unperturbed by the gloomy nature of their trek. Her unfailing innocence contrasted against the bleak atmosphere. The memorial stone that rose ahead of them stood out sharply against the orange sky. Sakura squinted, taking note of the two visitors gathered in mourning around it.

Hinata stood with her hand outstretched, as if to touch the man whose name was engraved there. Her head was bowed forward. The dark locks of her hair obscured her grief. Boruto sat at her knees, pulling handfuls of grass from the earth in clumps. His shock of blonde hair a cruel reminder of the man she mourned. Sakura closed her eyes. Memories of a similar scene tugged at her mind's eye. Her breath caught in her throat.

Sasuke stood there now, his fingertips tracing over the engraved names of fallen shinobi. Naruto had stood beside him, his lips moving as he recalled the stories of those fallen. Sakura had been unable to hear them from the far path where she stood. She dared not take a step onto that grassy hill, lest she break whatever spell of grief the two boys were under. Sasuke had bowed his head against the stone, his dark locks blending against it. Naruto clapped a hand on his shoulder, drawing near him. Sakura's heart had twisted at the open show of emotion. She longed for the Uchiha to display the kind of vulnerability he did now. To lean on her the way he leaned against Naruto for strength. For comfort.

She approached the stone, startling Hinata from her reverie. Boruto perked up at the sight of a playmate. A toothie grin stretched across his face. Sakura felt her stomach drop. He had his father's grin. His sky blue eyes lit with joy, and the image was so familiar she felt herself momentarily transported to the past. To Naruto grinning and giggling as Sasuke scoffed at him. Shyly asking her on a date only to flinch away at her rejection. Bandaged and bound in a sterile hospital room. His heart breaking in his crystal clear eyes as he swore up and down to bring Sasuke home.

The boy reached his chubby little fingers out to her daughter with glee. Sarada tugged at her hand, a nonverbal plea for permission to play. She pushed her gently towards the exuberant golden child.

"Sakura chan." Hinata greeted. Years of grief were written into her features, though she remained beautiful still. Her cheeks were pink with freshly fallen tears. Sakura averted her eyes, giving the shorter woman time to compose herself.

"It's good to see you." She said. She smiled in a friendly manner. It _was_ good to see the woman. They hadn't spoken much over the years. Caught in the ruin of their lives. Raising their sweet children. Children who resembled their fallen fathers far too closely.

"You too." She replied and smiled. The image was tragic. Naruto's beautiful widow. Her porcelain skin marred by tears. Eyes shadowed by pain. Her hand rested against the stone where his name was carved. Sakura found herself unable to meet the woman's gaze for too long. Her own suffering was mirrored there too clearly.

Boruto and Sarada had taken to circling the stone. Caught in a play battle with some ferocity. They mimicked clumsy hand signs, yelling made up attack names with an abandon that Sakura envied.

"I should have expected you'd be here." Sakura said. She laid a bouquet of flowers against the stone. They leaned against the white lilies Hinata had placed.

"It's four years to the day." The Hyuga woman said quietly. Sakura turned to examine the stone. Arm to arm with her sister in grief. Sasuke's name was carved to the left of Naruto's. She found that fitting. He'd been buried to his left as well. She wondered morbidly where her own body would come to lie. To be buried with them, somehow, seemed almost an intrusion.

"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" She asked. Her soul felt bared here in this dimly lit field. Accompanied by the one person in the world who could perhaps truly relate to her pain. A light breeze tugged at her sleeves. The smell of freshly cut grass carried on it.

"The Hyuga believe in reincarnation." Hinata said after a moment of hesitation.

Sakura nodded absently.

"Yes. Those two.. they've been reincarnating together for centuries." Her voice caught in her throat. The Sage of Six Paths had told them the story of their entwined souls. Bound together by fate for a thousand years. The meager time Sakura had spent with them both seemed to pale in comparison.

Hinata smiled.

"Perhaps they're already back." She said softly. Sakura laughed lightly.

"Wherever they are, I'm sure they're bickering." She said.

Sakura turned away from the stone to watch their children play. Sarada's raven locks swung around her as she danced in mock battle beside Boruto. The two of them turned back to back to face a pretend enemy.

That night, after the memorial stone, the former rookie 9 had met up for drinks. Sakura had sat beside Sasuke. Her heart pounding at his nearness. The grief she'd spied upon earlier had seemed erased from the both of them. Naruto's arms swung around gaily as he recounted tale after tale to the roaring laughter of their friends. Sasuke had chimed in here and there, adding a dry embellishment to Naruto's enthusiasm.

Sakura had not been married to him for long at this point. Her girlish shyness had yet to fade around the Uchiha. He had bought her a drink, placing it before her with care. Her heart had beat so hard in her chest she was sure he could hear it over the ruckus, but he had turned back away towards the conversation without comment. Naruto was drunk, inspiring peals of laughter from some crude joke. Hinata sat next to him with a glass of water clutched tightly in hand. Her arms pressed into her sides and a blush visible across the room splayed against her cheeks. Sakura had caught the girl's eye briefly. Then Naruto was slinging his arm around Sasuke's shoulders, announcing loudly that he'd missed him. That he wanted him to stay. Sasuke had grown serious at that point. The laughter of the night began to die down. Sakura left early with him. Naruto had called out to them as they left, but Sasuke had hurried forward and away.

They consummated their marriage later that night. Months after the wedding itself. She was happy, though their union was sterile as the act could be. Sasuke had pulled her against his chest afterwards. He slept with her nestled in his arms, and she'd been overwhelmed with gratitude for it.

Sarada squealed as Boruto tugged her towards the ground. Their invisible foe had thrown an attack. The blonde boy threw himself in front of her, his arms wide and protective. The girl was dissolved into giggles behind him.

Sasuke had gone down. He rolled in the dirt, straining to get back to his feet before the blow came. It never did. Naruto leapt between him and the enemy, using his body as a last ditch shield.

Sakura had been screaming then. Her voice reverberated across the field. Distantly she was aware of Hinata beside her. Heard the girl drop to the ground as her husband fell. She heard herself screaming for Sasuke to stand up. To keep moving. He'd crawled on his knees to the fallen blonde, cradling him in his arms as his blood pooled into the ground. The blow to the Uchiha had been swift. Striking him to his core, nearly splitting him in half. He had crumpled over Naruto's body, dead on impact. His hands still knotted in the blood stained cloak. Something deep inside Sakura had not stopped screaming since that moment. She heard it even now, ever present in the corner of her mind.

"I'll protect you no matter what!" The little boy yelled now, brandishing his fist toward the horizon. Sarada planted a kiss on his whiskered cheek. She collapsed in a fit of laughter as he drew away in disgust.

Sakura turned to glance at Hinata, noting the woman's blank stare as she gazed out at the children. If she was replaying the moment of her lover's death it was impossible to tell. The pain in her eyes had been replaced by a frightening numbness.

Sasuke had been away for the majority of her marriage to Naruto. He'd missed their wedding along with Boruto's birth. Missed Naruto's coronation as Hokage. To Hinata, whose life with Naruto had begun only after his years with Team 7 had come to a close, it must have been hard to understand why he'd left her the way he did. Why he'd thrown himself in front of his former teammate, taking the blow he could have easily avoided.

As much as Sakura had struggled with that day, she had never struggled with the _why_ of it.

It had never been any question to her, how far they would go for each other. Even as years and miles stretched between them. As responsibility piled over top of them. She knew, at the end of the day, where their hearts lay. There was no higher calling than each other. Sakura knew, without a doubt, that the moment Naruto was cut down was the moment Sasuke's life ended. The blow may have stopped his heart, but it was Naruto's death that killed Sasuke surer than any blade.

"Sarada." She called out, summoning her daughter to her side. "It's time to go home."

The girl ran to her, her chubby arms outstretched. Boruto came to a halt. His lower lip began to quiver with dismay.

"Say goodbye now." Hinata said to her son. Sakura allowed herself one last glimpse into the boy's cerulean eyes. A hollow gesture. Much as he resembled him, Naruto's son would never exude the radiance that he himself had carried. The light to Sasuke's shadow.

"Good night, Hinata chan." She said. She yearned to question her. To ask her if, when she had lain in bed beside her husband, she had felt his mind bent away towards his best friend.

The sun had set now, casting the lone woman in darkness as she continued to kneel before the stone. Sakura gripped her little girl's hand tighter.

"Mommy. Why isn't she leaving?" She asked.

Sakura shook her head to shush the girl. Tears brimmed over her lids, streaming down her cheeks and into the grass.

"She's can't yet." She said.

"When will she be able to?" The girl peered up at her with Sasuke's eyes. Long lashes lined their dark depths.

"When she realizes it." She said, and she gathered the small girl in her arms. Hoisted her to her hip.

"Realizes what?"

"That she still has a piece of Naruto with her. Just as I have a piece of Daddy with me. In you." Her smile was bittersweet.

 _When she realizes that Naruto never loved her in the way she wanted him to._

* * *

 **Wheww this became a little more gloomy than I had originally planned it, but I hope you enjoyed none the less! I would love to see more of a friendship develop between Sakura and Hinata in canon. The basis for this was to observe the similarities between the two, though it ended up slanting into more of a Naruto X Sasuke story. Those two tend to work their way into whatever I write. ~ Sunday R**


End file.
